November 4, 2013

I love math time and my kids love math games. They don't even know they are learning! Today I wanted to share a quick post to show you some things I have been using with my Tier II RTI group.

The friends in my group are having issues with counting to 100 in less than a minute so we are now starting every lesson counting to 100 using a hundred chart and pointing to each number. I have a large sand timer so we can see if we are counting fast enough. I created this super boring simple chart to have students graph their progress after each progress monitoring probe. Good documentation and the kids like seeing their progress.

Click the picture to snag a copy

We are also working hard on teen number identification. My kids can tell me what the number is called on a hundred chart, but can't name it in isolation. One of our progress monitoring tasks is quantity discrimination. The kids look at 2 numbers and name the larger one. Well, the kids can point to the larger one every time. However, they have to name it and they call 12, 20 and 13, 31 so they get them all wrong. So sad. They love this little review we do before each math lesson - proving that sometimes simple is fun. I hold these up like flash cards and the first person to read the number correctly gets to keep the card. Simple.Fast.Fun.Effective. If you want these cards, click on the image below to get them from Google Drive.

Teen Number Identification

Lastly, my whole class is working on solving addition and subtraction problems within 20. I created these Fall-themed problems to practice 1 per day whole group. This is just a quick time for us to talk about strategies and attack a problem together. Click the picture to get your copy in my TpT store.

If you grab any of these freebies or you have other ideas to help with RTI, I'd love to hear from you!! Night!

November 3, 2013

Hello Bloggy World! I have totally dropped off the face of the map.. sorry about that. I have been really busy changing to a new grade level (moved to first after 9 years in third) and the year started off with its usual crazy pace. But then, the worst phone call I have ever received happened 3 weeks into the year and everything went into a kind of tailspin. My mom called me one Friday afternoon. Her voice cracking, my anxiety level raising and she said, "Heather, I have cancer." We found out the following Friday that is was really bad - Stage IVB Vaginal Cancer.

I could post a whole book on the emotions I felt that day and every day since with the ups and downs that occur when a loved one is going through cancer treatment. I also live far away from her (I am in Texas, she is in Ohio) but I am really not sure if that is better or worse. Sometimes I feel like I am in a protective bubble, other times I feel like I couldn't possibly be further away. Any way, I figured I needed to rejoin the land of the living and try my best to live my life assuming she will get better (easier said than done!!)

Okay, sorry for the drama. Onto my November Currently hosted by the wonderful Farley.

Listening - I love country music. It makes me happy

Loving - today the high was in the 70's. Yay!!!

Thinking - my teacher bag is staring at me....

Wanting - I need to get November math stations ready to go before it is December!

Needing - this really is my thinking and wanting also... I love my mom and can't imagine not calling her to tell her the little random things about my day. Can't imagine her not seeing my kids grow.

Yummy Pin. I have made this carmel apple dip several times. It.Is.AMAZING. Like, lick the bowl with no shame good. Click the picture above to get the recipe from Event Trender